The present invention relates generally to commercial water softening devices and, more particularly, to a system for supplying brine to a remote water softening system.
The inventor of the instant application, doing business as The Cope Company Salt, has developed a system for supplying large quantities of salt to commercial and industrial customers, such as schools, hospitals, manufacturing facilities, nursing homes, hotels, etc. This system includes the burying of a large brine tank at a site away from the building in which the commercial or industrial water conditioning system is located. The remote brine tank is then connected to the water conditioning system with a brine line through which a brine solution would be delivered into the water conditioning system on demand via a pump. The water conditioning tank is provided with a sensor that indicates a low level of brine within the system, whereupon the pump is signaled to pump brine solution from the brine tank into the water conditioning system to a suitable supply level.
The brine tank is also connected to a fresh water supply at the building so that as the brine solution is pumped to the water conditioning system the brine solution can be replenished. Distribution of the fresh water within the brine tank is problem as a uniform concentration of salt within the brine is desired. The brine tank is formed with at least one fill tube that extends upwardly from the main tank to a manhole cover that is accessible above ground level. Salt is delivered to the brine tank by a large truck hauling loose salt which dumps the loose salt through the manhole cover into the brine tank through the open fill tube. Directing the loose salt being delivered into the relatively small open manhole frame is also problematic. Typically, any loose salt that is spilled over the surface of the ground is swept into the open manhole frame to be added to the supply of salt delivered into the brine tank.
Between the supply of fresh water and renewed supplies of loose salt into the brine tank, the brine solution can be replenished. The brine tank is sized for delivery of a known quantity of loose salt on a pre-established schedule that is defined by the normal salt utilization rates. For example, the rate of salt usage will deplete a normal truck load of salt within a predicted number of days; therefore, the delivery schedule will provide a truck load of loose salt on a regular periodic basis separated by the predicted number of days. The commercial or industrial customer would pay for the loose salt delivered.
Conventional methods of supplying salt for commercial and industrial water conditioning systems prior to the development of the above-described system includes the delivery of many bags of salt into a warehouse which may be adjacent to or remote from the water conditioner for which the salt is to be supplied. A worker would carry the salt bags to the water conditioning unit, open the salt bag and dump the contents into the brine tank of the water conditioning unit. This process would be repeated until the requisite volume of salt was supplied into the water conditioning unit. This method of supplying salt is extremely labor intensive and subjects the worker to muscle strain and injury climbing steps, carrying bags, and dumping salt from the opened bags. Furthermore, if proper attention was not paid to the level of salt in the water conditioning unit, the water conditioning unit could run out of salt, resulting in the water conditioning unit malfunctioning.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a scale mechanism that could be mounted on a truck for delivering loose material to a consumer's place of business and used to weigh and quickly dispense loose material being dispensed from the delivery truck.